Matthew Perry’s iconic performance on “Friends” may forever link him with New York City, but the actor behind Chandler Bing described himself as half Canadian and had deep ties to some of the biggest names in Canadian politics.
The 54-year-old actor was found dead in his Los Angeles home Saturday.
Perry detailed his childhood spent growing up in Canada with his mother in his memoir, published a year before his death.
Perry lived between Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto with his Canadian mother, Suzanne Perry, who worked as press secretary for then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau and later as a national anchor for Global News.
Matthew Perry’s passing is shocking and saddening. I’ll never forget the schoolyard games we used to play, and I know people around the world are never going to forget the joy he brought them. Thanks for all the laughs, Matthew. You were loved – and you will be missed.
“I was taking 55 Vicodin a day, I weighed 128 pounds, I was on Friends getting watched by 30 million people—and that’s why I can’t watch the show, ’cause I was brutally thin,” Perry said in a 2022 interview. “I didn’t watch the show, and haven’t watched the show, because I could go, ‘Drinking, opiates, drinking, cocaine. I could tell season by season, by how I looked. That’s why I don’t wanna watch it, because that’s what I see.”
Matthew Perry And Oliver Platt in “Three To Tango.”
Getty Images
Bruce Willis offers Matthew Perry a flower in a scene from the 2000 film “The Whole Nine Yards”
Matthew Perry, of “Friends” fame, has died at the too young age of 54.
According to a law enforcement officer, Perry drowned in his Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles home on October 28. However, there was an attempt to save his life. At 4.07PM, a 911 call was dialled on behalf of Perry. This call was classified as a water rescue emergency.
As it stands, sources are claiming that Perry drowned in his hot tub. There is no indication of foul play. Additionally, no cause of death has been announced.
On social media, numerous actors have commented on the fact that Matthew Perry has died. Most of these posts are in the form of tributes.
“…We Are Devastated”
“I’m so very sad to hear about Matthew Perry,” wrote the actor Paget Brewster. “He was lovely to me on Friends and every time I saw him in the decades after. Please read his book. It was his legacy to help. He won’t rest in peace though. He’s already too busy making everyone laugh up there.”
Additionally, Meredith Salenger wrote, “Matthew and I have known each other since we were 16 years old. Oh man. No words. Rest in peace.”
Even the Friends’ social media account has made a statement.
“We are devastated to learn of Matthew Perry’s passing,” “Friends” asserted. “He was a true gift to us all. Our heart goes out to his family, loved ones, and all of his fans.”
Besides “Friends”, Perry starred in some other classic television programmes and films. These include “The Kennedys: After Camelot”, “The Good Wife”, and “17 Again”.
In 2022, Perry published a book called “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir”. This book details his childhood, struggles with addiction, and time on the sitcom “Friends”.
The broadcast showed a picture of Perry coupled with a moment of silence right before the episode’s goodnights segment. Nate Bargatze was the episode’s host.
Perry, best known for playing Chandler Bing on “Friends,” died on Saturday. He was 54. According to the LA Times, Perry was found unresponsive in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home.
The actor hosted “Saturday Night Live” in 1997 with musical guest Oasis.
Perry portrayed the beloved, sarcastic Chandler on “Friends,” which ran for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004. He received one Primetime Emmy nomination in 2002 for the ninth season. Perry also appeared in “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” “Go On,” “The Odd Couple” and “The West Wing.” He scored two more Emmy nominations in 2003 and 2004 for his role as Joe Quincy on the Aaron Sorkin political drama.
In 2022, Perry opened up about his struggle with alcohol and drugs in his memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” revealing he was only sober for one Season 9 — the ninth — of “Friends,” and battled for most of his life.
In the book, he says at one point he was taking 55 Vicodin a day, has attended 6,000 AA meetings, had 14 surgeries and gone to rehab 15 times. He decided to write the book with hopes to help others going through any sort of addiction struggles.
In 2018, Perry’s colon exploded and he spent two weeks in a coma; his family was told he had a 2% chance to live. After he survived, he lived with a colostomy bag for nine months.
Since the news of his death, many celebrities have honored the comedian, including Paget Brewster, who starred on the show for six episodes an played his love interest, Kathy. “I’m so very sad to hear about @MatthewPerry. He was lovely to me on Friends and every time I saw him in the decades after,” she tweeted. “Please read his book. It was his legacy to help. He won’t rest in peace though.. He’s already too busy making everyone laugh up there.”
As news of the passing of Matthew Perry, an actor best known for his role as Chandler Bing on “Friends,” began circulating Saturday, many fans took to social media to remember his best moments.
Perry was found Saturday unresponsive in his home, authorities told the Los Angeles Times and TMZ. No cause of death was given, but foul play is not suspected. He was 54 years old. His publicist, agent and manager did not respond to Newsweek’s requests for comment.
Matthew Perry made Chandler Bing a beloved Friend. The actor arrives at the premiere of Warner Bros. “The Invention of Lying” on September 21, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. Jason Merritt/Getty Images
One of the most popular TV shows of all time, “Friends” has continued to find new audiences with reruns and streaming. HBO, whose streaming service Max is the current online home for the show, released a cast reunion show in 2021. A pop-up event featuring parts of the show’s set is currently touring the country, allowing the show’s fans to relive their favorite moments.
Straight man to Joey (Matt LeBlanc)
Perry often found himself playing the straight man for Matt LeBlanc, who played Chandler’s roommate Joey. Their chemistry shown through the differences in the two characters.
Matthew Perry was more than Chandler Bing. He was what made Friends go. Sad to hear of his passing, but thankful for the memories he gave us. Rest in Peace pic.twitter.com/9rVI8T2zgk
Perry was perhaps best known Chandler’s epic zingers, and perhaps for having a ‘nubbin’.
His sarcasm, however, was usually a facade for insecurities and awkwardness. When stripped away, it way for some tender, honest moments.
It’s impossible to pick from 10 seasons, but I keep going back to Chandler and Monica’s proposal as Matthew Perry’s finest moment on Friends because of how deeply felt his performance is. Yes, Perry was a sarcasm god, but his sincerity and sensitivity shines brightly here. pic.twitter.com/cOHMqQ9N4T
In his book, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing”, Perry shared a story about getting the last line on the final episode of “Friends.”
“Before that final episode, I’d taken Marta Kauffman to one side,” Perry wrote. “‘Nobody else will care about this except me,’ I said. ‘So, may I please have the last line?’”
Here’s my favorite moment from the ‘Friends’ reunion in 2021 – Matthew Perry talking about the special bond he shared with his co-stars: pic.twitter.com/q2q2e1KPWr
During the reunion show, Perry spoke about how close the cast remained well after “Friends” was over.
“After the show was over, at a party or any kind of social gathering, if one of us bumped into each other, that was it,” Perry recalled. “That was the end of the night. You just sat with the person all night long. And that was it, you apologized to people you were with, but they had to understand you had met somebody special to you and you were going to talk to that person for the rest of the night.”
Celebrities remember Perry
A number of celebrities shared their appreciate of the late “Friends” actor. Mira Sorvino remembered his wit. Piers Morgan recalled reading Perry’s memoir. George Takei simply offered condolences.
Oh no!!! Matthew Perry!! You sweet, troubled soul!! May you find peace and happiness in Heaven, making everyone laugh with your singular wit!!! 💔 💔 💔
RIP Matthew Perry, 54. The Friends star was a great actor, but by his own admission, a very tormented guy. His recent autobiography about his addiction-ravaged life was one of the most powerful, honest and revealing I’ve ever read. Such sad news. pic.twitter.com/RxAA1V1fr6
Warner Bros. Television Group released a statement to CNN: “We are devastated by the passing of our dear friend Matthew Perry. Matthew was an incredibly gifted actor and an indelible part of the Warner Bros. Television Group family. The impact of his comedic genius was felt around the world, and his legacy will live on in the hearts of so many. This is a heartbreaking day, and we send our love to his family, his loved ones, and all of his devoted fans.”
WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 17: Matthew Perry attends the GQ Men of the Year Party 2022 at The West Hollywood EDITION on November 17, 2022 in West Hollywood, California. Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for GQ
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
And neither would have been, as time went by, American culture. The actor, who infused the hit show with its vital, sustaining dose of sarcasm, went on in recent years to publicize his sobriety, and his work bringing others out of addiction through the founding of a sober living house. His death, at 54 in an apparent drowning, comes as a shock, in part because Perry seemed to have a second act lying ahead of him.
His work on “Friends” cast a long shadow: The on-off love affair between Ross (David Schwimmer) and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) were the engine of the show’s plot, but the character of Chandler Bing was the big comic idea. Acting amidst a murderer’s row of comedy performers, Perry was the cast tactitian, figuring out precisely where the final beat of each scene fell. Paired with Matt LeBlanc’s Joey as roommates in the show’s early going, Perry found new angles on the platonic bro-friendship, making it clear that this was, for the time being, the most important relationship in both guys’ lives. And Perry got a showcase in the 1999 episode “The One Where Everybody Finds Out” — moment for moment, among the strongest sitcom episodes of its era. Its quality is thanks in part to Perry’s commitment to a series of escalating schemes: Certain that he must prove he’s not in love with Monica (Courteney Cox), Chandler forces himself through a date with Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow).
And, as we knew he would, Chandler breaks down. He goes gleefully far in pursuit of the bit — for all that their pairing seemed convenient at the time, Perry’s and Cox’s ability to play off of each other was a rare comedy godsend — but he can’t, finally, pull off the lie. There was one thing that Perry, as Chandler, couldn’t do, and that’s guile: The character’s caustic wit, as performed by a master comic actor, presented as nothing more and nothing less than observational humor about his friends: One degree harsher and it would have tanked the show, one degree softer and it wouldn’t have landed.
And yet it always did, no matter how good or bad the script, no matter what Perry was going through. His memoir, published just last year, describes his emerging from a childhood in which he abused alcohol into a TV set on which he was, often, in active crisis. “Friends” will always be alternately funny and heartwarming, to the many millions on its wavelength. The struggles that Perry went through in order to perform a character whose jockeying wit overlays clear sadness seem, now, all the more apparent.
Through it all, Perry built and sustained a long-running career, including films like “Fools Rush In” and “The Whole Nine Yards” and further TV forays like “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” and the 2015 reboot of “The Odd Couple.” But nothing stuck like “Friends.” And perhaps nothing demanded as much, too. In his memoir, Perry wrote about performing Chandler’s marriage to Courteney Cox’s Monica, just before being taken back to treatment. It seems an act of gumption, and of helping out his friends, and something that makes one want to go back to the tape, to find the pain and try, from afar, to stamp it out. Perry has been open about the support — and, at times, the tough love — of his castmates on “Friends.” He had gotten as far as he had with the support of his castmates, but he still, years later, had a wit all his own, one that had gotten him through.
Friends star and beloved actor Matthew Perry has passed away at 54. Perry was found unresponsive in his hot tub at his Los Angeles residence. In 1994 Perry skyrocketed to fame as one of the stars of NBC’s smash hit comedy series Friends.
As the sardonic Chandler Bing, Perry carved out a niche as the sarcastic friend with a quick wit and a heart of gold. Though his role in Friends was undoubtedly iconic, Perry was a prolific actor who appeared in shows like The West Wing, Scrubs, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Good Wife, and Go On. Perry also starred in films like Fools Rush In, 17 Again, and The Whole Nine Yards.
Perry detailed his rise to fame and his struggles with addiction in his 2022 memoirFriends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. RIP to a television legend whose work touched millions across the globe. We’ll have more as this story develops.
Chelsea was born and raised in New Orleans, which explains her affinity for cheesy grits and Britney Spears. An pop culture journalist since 2012, her work has appeared on Autostraddle, AfterEllen, and more. Her beats include queer popular culture, film, television, republican clownery, and the unwavering belief that ‘The Long Kiss Goodnight’ is the greatest movie ever made. She currently resides in sunny Los Angeles, with her husband, 2 sons, and one poorly behaved rescue dog. She is a former roller derby girl and a black belt in Judo, so she is not to be trifled with. She loves the word “Jewess” and wishes more people used it to describe her.
Matthew Perry, a beloved actor known for his role as Chandler Bing in the classic ’90s sitcom “Friends,” died on Saturday at age 54, according to TMZ and The Los Angeles Times.
Law enforcement officials told TMZ that the actor was found dead in his jacuzzi at his home in L.A. from what appears to be a drowning incident. Authorities responded to the actor’s house at 4 p.m., where he was found unresponsive, the LA Times reported.
The exact cause of death has not been cited, and the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery Homicide detective is examining the death. Perry’s team did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Officials said that no drugs were found on scene and there were no signs of foul play. Perry has been open about his decades-long struggle with drug and alcohol addiction, including while filming “Friends.”
Perry was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts and raised in Ottawa, Canada. He later moved to Los Angeles as a teenager and landed a few TV appearances, including in “Boys Will Be Boys,” “Growing Pains” and “Sydney,” before making his big break in the Emmy-nominated show “Friends,” which was about a close-knit group of friends living in New York City and navigating adulthood.
In 1994, he portrayed the sarcastic but beloved character Chandler Bing, who lived with his best friend Joey (Matt LeBlanc) across the hall from his best friend’s sister — and later, wife — Monica (Courtney Cox).
He starred alongside big-name actors Matt LeBlanc, Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow and Courtney Cox during the show’s 10-season run. The show was a major success, even years after the show ended in 2004, garnering love and attention from fans across different generations.
Fans lauded the characters and the humorous, fun dynamic between the cast members, who came together in 2021 for “Friends: The Reunion” to talk about the show, their favorite memories, the emotional finale and the lasting bond that formed between them.
During the reunion, Perry spoke about how he didn’t remember filming seasons 3 through 6 because he had been struggling with substance abuse. He opened up about his years-long addiction struggles in 2013, People reported.
“I had a big problem with alcohol and pills and I couldn’t stop. Eventually things got so bad that I couldn’t hide it, and then everybody knew,” he said. Perry went to rehab twice and opened up a sober living center called the Perry House.
In November 2022, Perry wrote a memoir called “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” which details his experiences filming the hit show.
″‘Friends’ had been a safe place, a touchstone of calm for me; it had given me a reason to get out of bed every morning, and it had also given me a reason to take it just a little bit easier the night before,” Perry wrote in the memoir, according to Business Insider.
“It was the time of our lives. It was like we got some new piece of amazing news every day. Even I knew only a madman (which in many moments I had been nonetheless) would screw up a job like that.”
After “Friends” ended, Perry continued acting in shows such as “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” and “The Odd Couple,” and films such as “17 Again.” In 2016, he also wrote and starred in a London play called “The End of Longing.”
The television world is in mourning as iconic Friends actor Matthew Perry has passed away at the age of 54.
TMZ is reporting that Matthew Perry’s cause of death is due to an apparent drowning. Law enforcement sources told the outlet that Perry was found at a home where first responders rushed over after a call for cardiac arrest. No foul play is suspected, nor were there any drugs found at the scene.
Perry famously played Chandler Bing on Friends, which ran for 234 episodes over 10 seasons. He also appeared in other television hits such as Beverly Hills, 90210, Ally McBeal, Growing Pains, Scrubs, The West Wing, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Growing Pains, and more. The actor also appeared in several comedy movies, such as The Whole Nine Yards, Fools Rush In, and others. He hadn’t acted since 2017, although he recently appeared on the Friends reunion.
Perry has been open about his issues with substance abuse, primarily with painkillers and alcohol, having been in rehab several times. The actor recently put out a book in which he was open about his struggles and delivered behind-the-scenes stories.
ComingSoon sends condolences to Perry’s friends and family during this trying time.
For former TV writer Patty Lin, working on the smash sitcom Friends wasn’t the “dream job” she expected it to be.
In her upcoming memoir End Credits: How I Broke Up with Hollywood, Lin said the star-studded cast of Friends — including Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and Matthew Perry — would “deliberately tank” jokes, knowing it would trigger a rewrite.
Lin was a writer on Season 7 of Friends from 2000 to 2001. Her other TV credits include Freaks and Geeks, Desperate Housewives and Breaking Bad.
“The actors seemed unhappy to be chained to a tired old show when they could be branching out, and I felt like they were constantly wondering how every given script would specifically serve them,” Lin wrote in an excerpt of her memoir published by Time.
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Though Lin was a dramatic writer, not a joke writer, she knew when she was offered the Friends writing spot, she couldn’t turn it down. Lin said the high-pressure gig left her with imposter syndrome, and the worry she may have been hired in part because of a diversity initiative at NBC to bring on more writers of colour.
Lin recalled that the large team of Friends writers were “cliquey,” like the “preppy rich kids in my high school who shopped at Abercrombie & Fitch and drove brand-new convertibles.”
Lin said her excitement to be working on Friends “wore off fast.” During table reads with the cast, she claimed that “dozens of good jokes would get thrown out” because a lead actor “mumbled the line through a mouthful of bacon.”
“Seeing themselves as guardians of their characters, they often argued that they would never do or say such-and-such,” Lin wrote. “That was occasionally helpful, but overall, these sessions had a dire, aggressive quality that lacked all the levity you’d expect from the making of a sitcom.”
She said the stars would “vociferously” voice their grievances with each script.
“They rarely had anything positive to say, and when they brought up problems, they didn’t suggest feasible solutions.”
Lin said she “didn’t learn that much” at Friends, save for one lesson: “I never wanted to work on a sitcom again.”
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Lin is not the only one to criticize Friends since it ended in 2004. In March, Aniston, who played Rachel Green, said modern audiences would likely not approve of the jokes uttered on the sitcom.
“There’s a whole generation of people, kids, who are now going back to episodes of Friends and find them offensive,” she said.
Aniston blamed the offensiveness on a combination of “things that were never intentional” and elements of the program that just lacked thought.
Friends, a comedy about six young people in New York, has long since been criticized for a lack of diversity. All of the show’s main characters are white. While actors of colour appeared sparsely in short cameo roles, the most prominent, non-white actor on the show, Aisha Tyler (who played Charlie Wheeler), appeared in only nine episodes.
Matthew Perry seems to believe that fellow actor Ryan Reynolds drew inspiration from his iconic sitcom portrayal and incorporated similar performance elements before achieving fame in the entertainment industry. Confidential sources close to Perry reveal his unwavering conviction that Reynolds borrowed his character and delivery without ever acknowledging it publicly.
Matthew Perry’s decades long resentment towards Ryan Reynolds
Insiders disclose that the Friends actor has carried these sentiments for over two decades, unable to find closure. The focus is on Reynolds’ involvement in the late 1990s sitcom Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place, where he inhabited the character of Michael Bergen for four seasons. During this period, Perry strongly suspects Reynolds may have observed and emulated certain aspects of his beloved Chandler Bing character from Friends.
The depth of Perry’s conviction stems from his deep emotional connection to Chandler Bing and the significant impact the character made on popular culture. As insiders explain, Perry’s portrayal of Chandler resonated deeply with audiences worldwide, making it understandable why he might feel unsettled by potential similarities in the deadpool actor’s work.
Matthew Perry responsible for Ryan’s successful career?
According to an insider, Ryan’s sitcom Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza played a pivotal role in shaping the Red Notice actor’s artistic identity as both a performer and a creative force in the industry. It served as a blueprint for his distinctive voice and ultimately influenced his career trajectory as an accomplished writer and producer.
Ryan Reynolds swiftly ascended to stardom in Hollywood, seamlessly transitioning from television to starring roles in blockbuster films such as Deadpool, Free Guy, and numerous others.
While Reynolds has never explicitly acknowledged Matthew Perry’s character as a source of inspiration, sources emphasize that from Perry’s perspective this is irrelevant. The insider further revealed that Perry finds it particularly irksome that Reynolds has never made any reference to the alleged influence.
However, it is crucial to note that Perry does not harbor any aspirations of achieving the same level of success as Reynolds. Perry is known for his candid acknowledgment of the detrimental impact his own struggles with substance abuse had on his life, recognizing the near-fatal consequences it posed.
Matthew Perry speaks during the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on Saturday.
Dania Maxwell via Getty Images
Offering some explanation, he added, “I pulled his name because I live on the same street. Any future versions of the book will not have his name in it.”
“Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?” it reads.
Perry returns to the thought again while writing about Chris Farley’s 1997 death in the book.
Keanu Reeves arrives at the Oscars on Feb. 9, 2020, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
Jordan Strauss via Associated Press
After publication, the sitcom star made a quick about face, telling the media, “I’m actually a big fan of Keanu. I just chose a random name, my mistake. I apologize. I should have used my own name instead.”
At the event, Perry revealed he has only “publicly” said sorry to the “John Wick” actor.
“If I run into the guy, I’ll apologize. It was just stupid,” he reasoned.
Matthew Perry is continuing to express regrets for insulting Keanu Reeves in his recent memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.
In his book, the “Friends” alum took a shot at Reeves while expressing his admiration for the late River Phoenix, who died of a drug overdose at the age of 23.
“Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die,” wrote Perry, “but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?”
While Perry has previously admitted he made a “mistake” by singling out Reeves, admitting he “chose a random name,” he’s now revealing he’s prepared to go even further to make things right by removing all references of the “John Wick” star in future editions of the memoir.
“I said a stupid thing. It was a mean thing to do,” Perry said while appearing at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, reported Variety.
“I pulled his name because I live on the same street,” Perry continued. “I’ve apologized publicly to him. Any future versions of the book will not have his name in it.”
According to Perry, he hasn’t yet offered a personal apology to Reeves, but will do so if the opportunity were to present itself.
“If I run into the guy, I’ll apologize,” Perry added. “It was just stupid.”
Matthew Perry is admitting that he experienced the final moments of his life-changing “Friends” career much differently than his castmates.
In an excerpt from his new memoir “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing” obtained by BuzzFeed News, Perry reflected on the lack of emotion he felt the moment the last episode of the beloved sitcom wrapped.
The final scene of the series features all of the main characters in one of the show’s most popular sets — Monica’s (Courteney Cox) apartment.
In the emotional scene, movers are clearing out the rest of Monica’s belongings as the characters reflect on all the memories they’ve had in the now-empty space. The tension of the scene is broken by Perry’s snarky Chandler, who gets the final line in the series.
When Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) asks if everyone has some time to get some coffee — an activity the group of friends often did at their hangout spot Central Perk — Chandler hilariously replies: “Sure! … Where?”
Courteney Cox as Monica Geller, Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani, Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay, David Schwimmer as Ross Geller, Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing, Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green in a “Friends” cast photo from 1994.
“It was January 23, 2004,” Perry recalls in his memoir. “The keys on the counter, a guy who looked a lot like Chandler Bing said, ‘Where?’”
“‘Embryonic Journey’ by Jefferson Airplane played, the camera panned to the back of the apartment door, then Ben, our first AD, and very close friend, shouted for the last time, ‘That’s a wrap,’ and tears sprang from almost everyone’s eyes like so many geysers,” he writes.
But Perry says he wasn’t feeling the waterworks.
“We had made 237 episodes, including this last one, called, appropriately enough, ‘The Last One.’ Jennifer Aniston was sobbing — after a while, I was amazed she had any water left in her entire body. Even Matt LeBlanc was crying,” he writes. “But I felt nothing.”
“I couldn’t tell if that was because of the opioid buprenorphine I was taking, or if I was just generally dead inside,” he adds.
Perry has been open about the substance abuse problems he had throughout the filming of “Friends.” In 2013, he revealed on ABC News that he struggled with depression, alcohol and prescription drug abuse throughout his tenure on the show.
“Mostly it was drinking, you know, and opiates,” Perry said at the time. “I think I was pretty good at hiding it but, you know, eventually people were aware.”
Mathew Perry and Jennifer Aniston in 1998.
Russell Einhorn via Getty Images
Apparently, those who were aware included his co-star Aniston, who, Perry revealed in October, confronted him about his drinking.
“Yeah, imagine how scary of a moment that was,” Perry told Diane Sawyer. “She was the one who reached out the most. I’m really grateful to her for that.”
In his new memoir, Perry said that, after the final episode of “Friends” wrapped, he decided to go for a walk with the rest of the cast, crew and his girlfriend at the time around the Warner Bros lot. His final moments with those whom he worked with for so long echo the numbness he felt while others mourned the end of the iconic sitcom.
“We said our various goodbyes, agreeing to see each other soon in the way that people do when they know it’s not true, and then we headed out to my car,” he concludes in the except.
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Actor Matthew Perry speaks onstage during the 64th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at Nokia Theatre … [+] L.A. Live on September 23, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Getty Images
Excerpts from Matthew Perry’s upcoming memoir, in which Perry gets candid with his struggles with addiction, have been inspiring headlines for several weeks. One passage, which took a random, mean-spirited jab at Keanu Reeves, sparked backlash online, prompting an apology from Perry.
In the passage, Perry discusses his close friendship with the late River Phoenix, and his reaction to Phoenix’s death in 1993 from an overdose.
“River was a beautiful man, inside and out — too beautiful for this world, it turned out,” Perry wrote in the book. “It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down. Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?”
It’s an odd, tasteless jab that seems to come out of nowhere, and Perry repeats the sentiment in a later passage where he describes his reaction to the death of Chris Farley, who also died from an overdose.
Perry writes. “I punched a hole through Jennifer Aniston’s dressing room wall when I found out. Keanu Reeves walks among us. I had to promote ‘Almost Heroes’ two weeks after he died; I found myself publicly discussing his death from drugs and alcohol. I was high the entire time.”
There aren’t many “unproblematic” celebrities out there nowadays, and Reeves is one of the few who remains almost universally beloved, especially online. So many celebrities have been outed as abusers, or become consumed by bigotry, while Reeves has a reputation of being a genuinely lovely person.
Hence, the internet instantly came to his defense.
Some speculated that Perry might be nursing some kind of personal grudge against Reeves, while others noted that the jab was particularly cruel, considering that Reeves has experienced more than his fair share of grief and loss.
In response to the flood of condemnation, Perry quickly apologized, and attempted to clarify his intentions. In a statement to People Magazine, Perry said:
“I’m actually a big fan of Keanu. I just chose a random name, my mistake. I apologize. I should have used my own name instead.”
Some commentators were confused by Perry’s apology, as Reeves didn’t seem to be a random name at all; like Perry, Reeves was once close friends with River Phoenix.
In previous interviews, Reeves has been candid about how much he still grieves the late actor. In an interview with Esquire, Reeves discussed Phoenix, stating:
“It’s weird speaking about him in the past. I hate speaking about him in the past. So I almost always gotta keep it present. He was a really special person, so original, unique, smart, talented, fiercely creative. Thoughtful. Brave. And funny. And dark. And light. It was great to have known him.”
Perhaps Perry, who rose to fame in the nineties, where “edgy” humor was much more popular, was simply making a bad joke that really didn’t land; tastes have changed, as audiences have become more empathetic.
Nowadays, that kind of mean-spirited humor has become strongly associated with right-wing provocateurs, or fading comedians clinging on to relevancy through controversy.
Whatever Perry was thinking, he surely learned his lesson – never target Keanu Reeves, the most beloved man on the internet.
THURSDAY, Oct. 20, 2022 (HealthDay News) – Just a few years ago, “Friends” actor Matthew Perry almost died from opioid overuse that nearly destroyed his colon and almost killed him.
Now, he’s sober and wants to tell his story.
Perry has written a memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” which will be published Nov. 1.
“I wanted to share when I was safe from going into the dark side of everything again,” Perry told the magazine PEOPLE. “I had to wait until I was pretty safely sober — and away from the active disease of alcoholism and addiction — to write it all down. And the main thing was, I was pretty certain that it would help people.”
Perry shares that he has gone to rehab 15 times, but he doesn’t say how long he’s been sober.
“It’s important, but if you lose your sobriety, it doesn’t mean you lose all that time and education,” he says. “Your sober date changes, but that’s all that changes. You know everything you knew before, as long as you were able to fight your way back without dying, you learn a lot.”
Perry talks about how his alcohol addiction was just beginning when he was 24 and cast on the TV show “Friends.” Perry, now 53, played Chandler Bing on the show.
“I could handle it, kind of. But by the time I was 34, I was really entrenched in a lot of trouble,” he admits. “But there were years that I was sober during that time. Season 9 was the year that I was sober the whole way through. And guess which season I got nominated for best actor? I was like, ‘That should tell me something.’”
Among his lows during the “Friends” years were when he was taking 55 Vicodin a day and weighed only 128 pounds.
“I didn’t know how to stop,” Perry says. “If the police came over to my house and said, ‘If you drink tonight, we’re going to take you to jail,’ I’d start packing. I couldn’t stop because the disease and the addiction is progressive. So it gets worse and worse as you grow older.”
His cast mates were aware of his conditions and patiently propped him up.
“It’s like penguins. Penguins, in nature, when one is sick, or when one is very injured, the other penguins surround it and prop it up. They walk around it until that penguin can walk on its own. That’s kind of what the cast did for me.”
A few years ago, at age 49, Perry nearly died because of his addiction. His colon burst from opioid overuse, causing him to spend two weeks in a coma, five months hospitalized and to use a colostomy bag for nine months.
“The doctors told my family that I had a 2% chance to live,” Perry told PEOPLE. “I was put on a thing called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and your lungs. And that’s called a Hail Mary. No one survives that.”
Perry said he’s now healthy and that scars on his stomach remind him of his journey to sobriety.
“I’m pretty healthy now,” Perry said, before joking, “I’ve got to not go to the gym much more, because I don’t want to only be able to play superheroes. But no, I’m a pretty healthy guy right now.”
Perry said his therapist suggested that when he thinks about taking Oxycontin, he think about the possibility of having a colostomy bag for the rest of his life.
“And a little window opened and I crawled through it and I no longer want Oxycontin anymore,” Perry said.
Perry, the only survivor among five people put on an ECMO machine at his hospital the night his lengthy stay began, is determined to help others who struggle with addiction.
“I say in the book that if I did die, it would shock people, but it wouldn’t surprise anybody. And that’s a very scary thing to be living with. So my hope is that people will relate to it, and know that this disease attacks everybody. It doesn’t matter if you’re successful or not successful, the disease doesn’t care,” Perry said.
He has learned “everything starts with sobriety. Because if you don’t have sobriety, you’re going to lose everything that you put in front of it, so my sobriety is right up there,” he says. “I’m an extremely grateful guy. I’m grateful to be alive, that’s for sure. And that gives me the possibility to do anything.”
More information
The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration can help people struggling with addiction.
